What's that Song about the "Western Movies?"
I'm a movie fan, a film buff ... I love to recommend films that I often rate (4-great, 3-good, 2-average, 1-poor & I often add a ".5" to gain variation). I did that for my high school faculty when I was a building principal; did it now in my on-line newsletter (BEACH NOTES) for Buyers and Owners ... so I thought I'd do a blog posting every so often. First of all, I now only go to the "real movie theatre" (but these long thin places aren't exactly the real thing anymore). I remember going to the old Hershey (PA) Theatre where a piano came out of the floor, and they played music for a half hour before the film. You could also sit in the balcony ... but only if you had a date (joke), and there were stair in the ceiling during the show. That was a movie theatre!
Moving on, I grew up in a small town where they still had a movie theatre (1950s) including a Saturday afternoon show. You could go at 7PM or 9PM (most movies in those days were able to fit into that two hour segment. I recall being one of only three or four in attendance for those late shows when I was in high school (should have been home studying instead of catching John Wayne or Gary Cooper). Why do I mention those two great actors?
Because this posting is a review of my favorite type of film ... "the Western" The "western" is the original all American film. No country (particularly Italy) can ever duplicate what we (America) can do with this format. A recent "top-10" review of all Westerns ranked the following as the best in this order:
1- The Searchers - John Wayne - This is a great film and makes my top ten, but not #1. It is one of three that have John Wayne as part of the top ten.
2- High Noon - Gary Cooper & Grace Kelly + many other great actors including Lloyd Bridges, etc. - This is in my top five, and I doubt that anyone played the lead better in a western film than Gary Cooper (4 rating)
3- Shane - Alan Ladd - Another great western, but again not in my top grouping.
4- Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman - This is another of my top five (4 rating) ... it is the one of the many, probably the best, where the western shifted into the gritty violent film instead of the rest.
5- Red River - John Wayne - Another good one ... catch these black and white films on Turner Classic
6- The Wild Bunch - William Holden & Ernest Borgine - one of the early gritty ones - directed by Sam Peckempaugh (maybe misspelled) ... (3.5 rating)
7- Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid - Paul Newman & Robert Redford - the lighter (comedy) type western as compared to the singing cowboys of old ... (3 rating)
8- McCabe & Mrs Miller - Warren Beatty & Julie Christie - A good film but I really like Julie Christie as a film actress ... a different type of western again
9- Stagecoach - John Wayne - Directed by John Ford (who may have directed one or both of the others with John Wayne (not sure) who is a personal favorite of mine ... The Quiet Man w Wayne & Maureen O'Hara was also directed by Ford (one of my all-time favorite films).
10- Cat Ballou - Lee Marvin (another favorite actor of mine) & Jane Fonda (can she be that old) ... you have to love the music in many of these westerns (Frankie Lane singing the lead song in "High Noon" or Nate King Cole and Stubby Kaye singing in this film ... and actually being in the film at certain times ... this is a fun film
Well, I haven't covered my own personal western favorites ... we'll save this for another day when I can pull them all together. I'm certainly open to your comments regarding these and others. Thanks for taking the time to read my posting. Dap
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